CUTS END PROGRAM FOR PREGNANT TEENS

For 30 years, the city's pregnant teenagers have found an open door and help at the Teenage Parents Program, whose most recent home has been at 110 Washington St.

There the girls -- more than 250 of them last school year -- attended classes, learned child care skills and had flexible, four-day schedules that allowed them to keep appointments with their doctors and prepare for the baby's arrival.

But this summer, severe school budget cuts have erased the program. That means pregnant girls will have to attend their regular schools. And no special services are following them there.

In a city where statistics show that for every teenage girl who graduates from high school, two others have dropped out and had babies, school officials are calling the loss of the program particularly troubling.

"When we turn away from these young ladies and their babies, it's two people we're turning away from," said Peter DiResta, former coordinator of the city's alternative education programs. "We are relegating them to a lower-quality life."

Although some city officials are saying privately that the parents program had outlived its usefulness, and that the services would be more appropriately provided within the regular schools, there is general concern that without special help more pregnant girls now will simply choose to drop out of school.

"I think we'll lose quite a few of them," said Sheila McNally, who had worked in the program for 21 years, the last 11 as its director. "I'm not saying these kids can't function in a regular school. Some do."

"But my guess is that a lot will fall by the wayside," she said.

For most of the girls, McNally said, pregnancy is not the only issue.

Many were potential dropouts before they became pregnant, a number have social and legal issues the program helped them deal with, and some are embarrassed by the pregnancy -- especially when the baby's father is a schoolmate and no longer involved with the mother-to- be, she said.

McNally estimates that at least 85 percent of the girls who attended the parents program returned to their regular schools after giving birth. The program also served a handful of suburban girls whose school systems paid tuition for them to attend.

Because the program is not required by state law, it often was targeted for elimination when the school board was looking to tighten its belt. It had escaped the ax year after year until this summer, when the board needed to slash more than $11 million to balance its 1994-95 budget.

The board eliminated the program's proposed $943,320 budget, and with it positions for 10.4 teachers, two paraprofessionals, 1.5 social workers and a counselor. Staff members are being reassigned in the school system.

Both McNally and DiResta said the loss of the program throws into jeopardy two other initiatives for pregnant teens or teenage parents. One program was being developed by the Teenage Parents Program and Hartford College for Women; another was under way with the Junior League of Hartford.

"All these great initiatives unfortunately look like they'll come to a screeching halt, too," DiResta said.

DiResta, who retired this year and is volunteering his time to help his successor, Frank Deloreto, prepare for the first day of school Aug. 30, said that it will be up to individual school principals to devise ways to help pregnant teens.

"There has been no strategy developed," said DiResta, who estimates that the parents program served about 30 percent of the school system's pregnant teens. Special services such as guidance and counseling at all the high schools have been cut back, he said, and that means there will be less attention for every student this year.

At Bulkeley High School, Principal Anna Salamone-Consoli said she and her staff are working on putting together special courses to serve expectant teenage parents. And she feels lucky that two former Teenage Parents Program staff members have been reassigned to Bulkeley.

"We've established some courses on parenting, child development and prenatal care," Salamone-Consoli said this week. "We will make sure that the girls get in at least one of these classes."

She said the school, where at least 50 students became pregnant last year, also will continue its work establishing support groups for teen parents, and arranging later starting times for pregnant girls.